the ukranian people. international support for kiev is growing. u.s. secretary of statejohnkerrywasthere today expressing moral support along with a massive aid package, and he spiced in some tough words for russia. >> if russia does not choose to deescalate, if it is not willing to work directly with the government of ukraine as we hope they will be, then our partners will have absolutely no choice but to join us to continue to expand upon steps we have taken in recent days in order to isolate russia politically, d diplomatically and economically. >> steve sedge wik is in kiev with the latest challenges the interim government still faces. >> reporter: here in kiev on tuesday a slight lessening of tensions. for the first time since the start of the crisis we heard from russian president putin who appeared to say there will be no russian military activity across ukraine. he failed to answer the questions about whether there were 16,000 russian troops on the crimeaen peninsula. elsewhere we're seen secretary of state john kerry offering support to the fledgling pro-western govern

-cabrera in kiev. >> late today, u.s. secretary of statejohnkerrysaidthe u.s. is considering a $1 billion in loan guarantees to ukraine, but no decision has been made yet. >>> still ahead, j.c. penney says it expects sales and gross profits to improve this year. but is it enough to turn investor sentiment? >>> some positive news from j.c. penney after the market closed today and investors seemed to be encouraged enough to buy the stock at least for now. after the the bell, the struggling retailer reported a loss of 68 cents a share, but that was a lot less than analysts estimates. sales rose 2% to $3.8 billion, but that was below wall street forecasts. j.c. penney says it expects sales and gross margins to improve in 2014. and that's one reason shares initially jumped as much as 10% in after-hours trading. but j.c. penney isn't in the clear. courtney reagan has more on the challenges ahead and what some analysts are advising investors to do with the stock. >> reporter: j.c. penney seems to garner an outsize amount of attention every earnings season for the past few years. and with good re